Makin Raid

The Makin Raid (17-18 August 1942) was an attack by American Marine Raiders on a small Japanese military base on Makin atoll in Kiribati during World War II. Evans Carlson's raiders moved in to destroy the Japanese installations on the island, take prisoners, gain intelligence on the Gilbert Islands area, divert Japanese attention from the Battle of Guadalcanal, and rescue several missing prisoners-of-war. The Marine Raiders attacked the island from two sides: one force, led by Tom Sullivan, headed to rescue the POWs from the Japanese before fighting their way to extraction; the main assault force would move up a beach and face a Japanese watchtower and defensive positions. The Japanese set traps across the island, with several soldiers playing dead before ambushing American troops, and the Japanese using rope-and-grenade traps to kill US soldiers. The Americans ultimately fought their way past the Japanese troops and set charges at their supply depots, blowing up their supplies before escaping in rubber boats. The raid was a tactical US victory, but no prisoners were taken, no meaningful intelligence was collected, and the Japanese strengthened their fortifications and defensive positions across the Pacific islands. The Americans would discover this at the bloody Battle of Tarawa in 1943.